


sometimes you make mistakes

by MrMich



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman and the Signal (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Batfamily (DCU), Bruce Wayne's growing horde of children, Found Family, Gen, Humor, I just think it'd be easy to mistake the batfam as criminals is all I'm saying, Misunderstandings, Secret Identity, Vigilantism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:01:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23522752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrMich/pseuds/MrMich
Summary: The thing was, Duke was almost positive that his neighbors were criminals.He wasn’t sure they even counted as neighbors. There were way too many of them to actually be staying in the tiny apartment next door and he could hear them coming and going at all times of night, so he was pretty sure about the fact that none of them actually lived there. Except maybe Jason Todd, but he was definitely a criminal, so that was a point in favor of Duke’s criminal conspiracy theory.Or, In which Duke fights crime, wages a petty war with his criminal neighbors, and entirely fails to put two and two together.
Comments: 114
Kudos: 423





	1. Jason

**Author's Note:**

> This was born from the idea of Duke having a relatively normal youth (as much as one can in Gotham), where his parents aren't driven crazy by Joker Venom, and he doesn't end up as part of the We Are Robin movement. But Duke, even without these formative moments in his life, is still nothing less than a hero who fights to protect those around him. This is a story about that Duke.

The thing was, Duke was almost positive that his neighbors were criminals. 

He wasn’t sure they even counted as neighbors. There were way too many of them to actually be staying in the tiny apartment next door and he could hear them coming and going at all times of night, so he was pretty sure about the fact that none of them actually lived there. Except maybe Jason Todd, but he was _definitely_ a criminal, so that was a point in favor of Duke’s criminal conspiracy theory. 

Jason Todd slept all day and crawled out the window every night, coming back only in the small hours of the morning. And yeah, maybe Duke only knew Jason’s routine because he caught a blood stained Jason scaling the brick wall of their crappy apartment building when Duke was discreetly trying to make his own way back into _his_ apartment, but that didn’t count. 

Duke was... a community helper. Or something. The point was, he wasn’t a criminal, and his neighbors absolutely were.

And that was why Duke couldn’t move out of the apartment building. As shitty as it was, Gotham was Duke’s birthplace and he loved her, so he was morally obligated to keep watch over Jason Todd and his criminal friends.

He always did what he could to help Gotham out. 

It’s just that somewhere along the way, volunteering at the community center and cleaning up the parks turned into quietly leaving his warm bed at 2am to make sure that women out late got home safely and people went unmugged when passing by shady alleys. And if that meant that sometimes he had to use a little bit of physical persuasion to achieve that, well, Gotham, as much as he loved her, was a tough city. And Duke could be just as tough as she was.

It would be completely irresponsible of him to just leave criminal activity unmonitored, especially criminal activity that happened right next door, so he stayed in his apartment even though common sense says to get the hell out of there. He already fought crime, and that was only a step below surveillance. He could totally get away with this. 

Which was why he found himself knocking on apartment 316 at eight in the morning. 

Duke wasn’t dumb enough to outright fight an actual criminal in his own home territory, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t harass Jason Todd only three hours after Duke knew he crawled into his little criminal den. 

Duke may be feeling a little vindictive. Late nights patrolling followed by early morning college classes will do that to you. 

The door opened, and a pissed looking Jason Todd scowled through the gap. Duke plastered a friendly, _neighborly_ , beatific smile on his face and tried not to laugh. It was, admittedly, hard to take a seasoned criminal seriously when he had pillow creases on his face. 

“What do you want,” Jason Todd grunted. His hand was cradling his head, like he was nursing a headache. _Good,_ Duke thought viciously. 

“I was just wondering if you had any sugar I could borrow?” Duke reveled in being able to use the dumbest excuse in the books. It was even somewhat legitimate; he actually was out of sugar. Never mind that he purposely was holding off on buying it for this exact purpose. 

So sue him, he liked the classics. 

Jason Todd narrowed his eyes. Duke smiled like the innocent, not at all vindictive college student he wasn’t. 

“Wait here.” The door slammed shut. Which… was kind of a surprise. Did Jason Todd actually have sugar to borrow? Because that went against every preconceived notion Duke had about him. Weren’t criminals supposed to take their coffee black like their souls? 

...And now that he actually gave voice to that thought, he could admit that it sounded dumb.

The door opened. Jason Todd stepped out, dropped a half empty bag of sugar into Duke’s hands, said “You can keep it” and closed the door again. 

Duke stood there dumbly for a second, confused and holding a newly acquired bag of sugar in his hands. Faintly, he heard someone ask something from behind the door, too muffled to make out clearly. Jason Todd had at least one of his criminal buddies over then. 

He grabbed the bag a little tighter and started moving back to his apartment on autopilot. That was… not how this interaction was supposed to go. He kind of wanted to scream, except he couldn’t because Todd’s apartment _was right next door._ Why did Jason Todd hand him a bag of sugar? Why does he even have sugar to spare?

Which, maybe he should have thought of a better cover than borrowing sugar at eight in the morning because the apartment walls were thin enough that Todd would know if he didn’t do something with it. Who bothered someone that early in the morning for sugar they weren’t going to use immediately? 

He was an idiot. 

Duke really wanted to go fifteen minutes back in time and punch the version of him that thought that the classics were funny enough to copy. Sure, he had sugar now, but was it worth the psychological leaps that he had to make now that he was in possession of Jason Todd’s extra sugar? Jason Todd shouldn’t be willing to give any extra sugar to his neighbors. He shouldn’t even have extra sugar! Duke has seen the man with guns! Multiple guns! All at the same time, even.

With a sigh, he set the sugar on the counter of his tiny kitchen and pulled flour and baking soda from the pantry cabinet. He had enough time to bake a couple batches of chocolate chip cookies before he had to get to class, which would be a good enough excuse to need sugar that early in the morning. Todd and his criminal buddy would be able to hear the oven timer through the wall they shared, at the very least.

Maybe he could even offer Jason Todd a plate of cookies and hope he and his little gang of criminals choked on them.


	2. Dick

It had been a bad night. For some reason, petty crime in Gotham was up by a ridiculous amount, and Duke panted harshly as he made his way back to his apartment, clutching at the oozing stab wound on his side. 

He was usually good enough to avoid anything more than superficial cuts and bruises. Tonight though, he’d stopped four muggings and an armed robbery, and while he’d handled the armed robbery okay, the last mugging was a huge mess. Luckily he was the only one hurt. 

He looked up the brick wall that led up to the window of his apartment and cursed. There was no way he’d be getting up that way tonight. It was fine. Being seen coming in late only one night wouldn’t compromise his identity, and anyone who saw him would hopefully think he’d just come back from a college party or something. 

Duke tugged his black hoodie closer around his body and he pulled the hood down. It made him feel naked, but people looked suspiciously at black men who had their hoods up at three in the afternoon, never mind three in the morning. Even though it rankled, Duke couldn’t afford to draw any more attention than he was already going to. 

He started jogging up the stairs to his apartment, one hand in his pocket to anchor the sweater against the slice in his side, staunching the blood flow as much as possible. He fumbled his keys in the other hand, focusing entirely on his disgustingly soft couch just a few flights up. What he wouldn’t give to just collapse into it and sleep forever, seriously. 

Except he might really sleep forever, in the dead kind of way, because that was a solid human body he’d just bumped into. 

Aaand he definitely just literally ran into one of Jason Todd’s criminal roommates. Maybe criminal brother? It was the first good look that Duke got of any of them besides Jason Tood, but he’d seen him coming out of Jason’s apartment enough times to know they were at least associated, and given that black hair and blue eyes wasn’t too common of a combination, Duke was getting the feeling that they were probably related. 

“Oh, I’m sorry!” The guy–Duke was just going to call him Shady Guy #2–grinned brightly and steadied Duke, one hand on his shoulder to keep him from tumbling down the stairs and the other pressed on top of Duke’s hand that was cradling his side. Duke gritted his teeth in a facsimile of a smile because that was his  _ stab wound, thanks Shady Guy #2 _ .

“You’re fine.” Duke tried to maneuver his way around the smiley criminal, desperately hoping that the salty tang of blood wasn’t too obvious to the probable murderer right in front of him. He could just slip around Shady Guy #2 and then he’d be home free.  _ He could. _

His side throbbed. 

“You don’t look too good. Do you need help?” 

Which was  _ fine. _ Everything was fine. Except maybe murderers could smell blood like how sharks could and God, Duke was screwed. 

“Nope! All good here. And, uh-” Duke paused, trying to cough up the words stuck in the back of his throat. “...Thanks. For the concern.” He waved a hand up the stairs in the general direction of his apartment, trying to get across that he’d be fine, his apartment was right there and there was absolutely nothing to worry about. 

“I’ll just, uh, be off now. I’m very tired,” he tried. “Really. You know those late night college parties.” He flashed another attempt at a smile at Shady Guy #2, hoping it’d get him to back off. 

...Given the look on the guy’s face, it probably didn’t work as well as he hoped. 

“Let me at least accompany you to your apartment; it’ll make me feel better to know you got there okay.” He offered his hand. “I’m Dick, by the way.”

“Is that-?” Duke couldn’t help himself. A pained expression stole across Dick’s(? Was that  _ really _ his name?) face and his hand came up to rub at the corner of his temple.

“Please don’t make any jokes about it, I have literally heard them all.”

Duke decided to take pity on the guy. Only part of it was because it really was low hanging fruit, and Duke had at least some pride. 

“I’m Duke.” He inclined his head towards the stairs. “I’m also very tired, so if you’re going to insist on seeing me to my door like some teenage girl in the 80s, can we at least get going?”

Dick apologized and Duke started leading him up the stairs to the third floor. 

Duke was stepping very carefully, trying to not let any blood leak through his hoodie at the same time he was trying desperately not to sway on his feet. He could  _ not _ show any weakness in front of his criminal neighbor’s equally criminal brother. 

After what felt like forever, they finally got to Duke’s apartment. 

“Oh hey, you live right next to my brother,” Dick said. 

“Your brother is Jason? What a small world,” Duke replied, trying to keep a casually neutral but politely interested tone, like a person who didn’t obsessively note everyone who went into that apartment. Given that he didn’t know what that sounded like, he really wasn’t sure if he hit it. Dick didn’t seem to notice though. 

Duke was going to count that as a win in his book. 

He awkwardly stumbled to the front of his door. His left hand was still clutching at his side from his hoodie’s pocket. He couldn’t take it off because the blood flow hadn’t stopped yet and Dick was also  _ right there _ and it wasn’t like a blood covered hand was low key. 

He could use his right hand, but with his luck tonight, he’d probably drop his keys and Duke didn’t think he could bend over right now to pick them up. He was really out of options here, though. 

Sucking in a quick breath, Duke grabbed his key with his right hand and shoved it roughly into the lock, cursing when it caught a quarter of the way in. He bobbed it up and down to force it in and smiled wanly at Dick. “Sticky lock. You know how it is.” 

Dick just chuckled. “Oh yeah, I get it. I live in Bludhaven, and even the half decent buildings there have terrible locks on the doors.”

Duke narrowed his eyes at his door as the keys finally rattled into the lock. So they operated in Bludhaven too, then. He’d have to keep an eye out for anything big spilling over into this area of Gotham from Bludhaven. 

He turned to Dick with an overly bright smile, the door already half open. “Well, this is me. Thanks for being willing to keep an eye out, even if it wasn’t entirely necessary.” The smile felt rubbery at the edges. “Gotham always needs good citizens, you know?”

Without waiting for a reply and feeling slightly sick to his stomach for even just implying that Dick could even possibly be a good citizen, Duke slipped into his apartment and shut the door firmly behind him. 

The jerk of the door closing so suddenly made his side twinge. Duke winced and slowly let go of his side. The palm of his hand came away drenched in blood of varying states of drying and he was very careful as he peeled it away, slowly unsticking it from his hoodie. Duke tried not to rip the hoodie off the wound yet, knowing that it would only reopen what had already managed to scab shut, and he was suddenly and very clearly relieved that he’d taken a first aid training course. Even if this  _ did _ go a bit further than the things he was taught in that class. 

Before doing anything else he swiped at his phone with his free hand and connected it to his wifi speakers. He might as well get  _ one _ enjoyment out of the night. 

Duke stumbled into the bathroom as Bad Day started belting from the speakers. “I’ll give  _ you  _ a bad day,” he muttered under his breath. Duke reached for the folded stack of already stained towels that lived under his sink. He soaked one and quickly got to work, practiced hands setting about removing the hoodie – and damnit, that was another one ruined – and stitching the gash in his side closed. 

He bandaged it carefully, lightly patting the gauze after it was taped in place. Duke heaved a sigh as he looked at his bathroom. It looked like a murder scene from a B horror movie.

He left the bathroom without cleaning anything. 

It was, he decided, a problem for future Duke. He dug some earplugs out of one of his kitchen drawers and made his way to his bed, ready to pass out for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so much fun to write, you guys!


	3. Tim

The next time he saw one of his neighbors scaling the brick wall of the apartment it wasn’t Jason Todd –– and if they were going to keep doing this, why didn’t they just buy a better apartment that was actually up to code and had a fire escape? Duke knew they had to have enough money to afford one. They definitely seemed like they’d be good enough at crime to be rich, what with the supervillain-esque getups. 

This time, it was the one with the weird, creepy looking cowl. 

And, okay, Gotham was a special case, what with Batman and all, but did they really feel the need to catapult headfirst into the villain aesthetic? It was almost more tacky than it was terrifyingly unsettling. 

Duke looked up at the figure just as he turned his face to the side. And, okay, the blank white eyes and the sharp edge of the mask that bisected the man’s face were pretty intimidating. They made up for the bright red tunic, which _definitely_ took away from the scary factor. The cape too; as a Gothamite who heard the daily news of Batman terrifying the night time criminals, Duke knew for a fact that capes could be pretty damn intimidating. 

But a cape that hung limply as its wearer scrambled up the side of a very outdated and dingy brick building just looked kind of sad. 

The grass crunched lightly under Duke’s feet as he shifted, hiding behind the corner of the building as he waited impatiently for his own turn to scale the brick wall to his apartment window. Duke sighed. He just wanted to take a hot shower to ease the throbbing ache of the stab he suffered the week before. 

He’d caught a group of three men in ski masks robbing a convenience store earlier that night and one of them had gotten a good punch in right below the still healing stab wound. 

Duke hissed as it gave a twinge and watched the guy in the cowl scramble the rest of the way up the brick and into his neighbor’s apartment. One of these days he was going to take care of that. Hopefully. There were just a _lot_ of guns in that apartment. 

He’d probably have a better chance hoping that Batman would come by and take care of it. Duke knew when he was unqualified for a job, and there was something about Jason Todd that _screamed_ dangerous in a way that went so much farther than even your opportunistic murderer. 

Duke sighed. He stood still for another two minutes, making sure that the other criminal was tucked safely in Jason’s apartment, and then he began to make his own way up the wall, using the rough cut of the brick and the vines latched onto it as handholds. 

He grunted as he finally made it up and over his windowsill, the ledge digging slightly into his ribs. He slid to the floor, sprawled out on his stomach and his cheek pressed into the wood. Duke just released a long, slow breath and laid there, exhausted from the climb.

Climbing a wall with a hole in your torso? Not fun. 

Duke pushed himself up slowly, lifting himself enough to shift to his side with minimal pain. He’d learned, through trial and error, that it was the best way to pick your hurting body off the ground. He’d mastered _so many_ vigilante techniques. Batman would cry with pride. 

Duke flopped onto his back. Getting up might take a little longer than he’d thought. 

He made for a second attempt, but his arms slipped out from underneath him as he jumped at a loud _thump_ coming from the wall he shared with Jason Todd. He narrowed his eyes as it came again. 

He knew that sound. He’d been in the vigilante game long enough to know what the sound of someone getting thrown up against a wall was like. 

Duke was, in fact, _well_ acquainted with that sound, given that he’s either the one doing the shoving or the one who’s shoved. It used to be that he was almost always the shovee but he’s proud to report that he’s mostly been the shover as of late.

He grunted as he lifted his shoulders from the ground and made his way to the wall, briefly hoping that maybe the new criminal partner wasn’t a criminal but one of Gotham’s many unseen heroes, and that the body shoved against the wall was Jason Todd, finally caught. 

Duke gently let his body lean against it and slid back down to the floor. He tilted his ear to the wall, trying to make out what the occupants of Jason Todd’s apartment were saying. 

“...can’t let… Batman…” There was a brief pause, accompanied by another thump that shook the wall Duke’s head was pressed against. “going… take care of it.” Duke didn’t recognize the voice.

Then came a more familiar voice, a little more audible than the other, not sounding distressed in the slightest. Duke’s hopes of a Jason Todd free life were dashed. The man he’d seen climbing the wall was likely another criminal partner and Jason was likely the one throwing whatever poor sap they had in their clutches against the wall then. “... Batman _won’t_ … involved. He knows… _my_ territory.”

There was another thump and then a ragged gasp. 

Duke ground his teeth at their victim’s misfortune, but he stayed where he was. He’d be no use to anyone, already hurt on top of the exhaustion after a long patrol. If he went in for a rescue or a fight, he’d end up dying first, with whoever they’d kidnapped following right after. 

It didn’t hurt any less. Sometimes knowing your limits felt worse than thinking you were invincible. 

He’d have to wait until they left and hope that their victim was still alive for a rescue. If they didn’t seem like they were planning to leave anytime soon, he’d cook up another plan. He bowed his head. This was all he could do for now. 

He stayed there, pressed up against the wall for hours, listening for any hints of movement or anything that meant that he had to stage a rescue right _fucking_ now, consequences be damned. 

There was nothing. Some small shuffling, but nothing telling and no cues. Duke slept lightly, leaned against that wall. He skipped all his classes to make sure that nothing happened, and napped here and there throughout the day, only moving to go to the bathroom and feed himself. 

Finally it was night again. The shuffles in the other apartment grew louder, and then Duke could hear the muffled slide of the window opening, quickly followed by the sound of two bodies thumping lightly against the ground. He scrambled to the window and peered over the edge. 

Two figures disappeared into a nearby alley. Duke shot into motion, sprinting to the door and into the hallway. He tried the knob, unsurprised to find it locked. 

That was fine, Duke had locked himself out of his own shitty apartment – mostly due to his key not fitting into the lock – enough times to know just the right way to jiggle the door to open it. He sighed. He _really_ needed to get a better place. 

Rattling the doorknob just right, he slid the tips of his fingers into the crack between the door and the door frame. He dug his fingers in just as the lock withdrew a little, and jiggled the door. The lock withdrew enough that the door popped open with just a little extra pressure, and Duke rushed in. 

There was no one there. 

Not Jason Todd, not any of his criminal partners. And not a sign of the person they’d abducted. 

Duke felt like crying. He sucked in a breath instead and focused, staring into the room, eyes narrowed in concentration. The imprint of light left from the last several minutes showed the cowled villain already gone from the room. The two figures he’d seen darting into the alley were Jason Todd and the man he’d kidnapped. He was alive then, and from what Duke could tell, not badly hurt. 

Duke’s fist clenched. Hopefully he’d stay relatively unhurt. 

Duke could find him. He went back to his own apartment and gathered his supplies. Dropping out the window and scaling down the side of the building, Duke set off. 

This was going to end very badly. Duke wasn’t dumb, he knew his skill sets were well below that of Jason Todd. But it wasn’t going to stop him from trying. He was one of Gotham’s protectors, and he’d be damned if he didn’t even _try_. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a little more of a serious note because you can't live next to a criminal who you know outranks you in power and then not feel absolutely terrible when something happens that you can't stop


	4. Damian

All the searching that Duke had done came up with nothing. No Jason Todd, no abductee. It also meant that there was no body, either, which left Duke feeling hopeful that whoever Jason Todd had kidnapped was still alive out there. 

He’d eventually had to return to his apartment, all possible clues run dry even as he’d searched alley after alley. If Duke didn’t know better, he’d have said that Jason Todd could fly, given the way all the evidence seemed to disappear behind him.

But Duke had something else. There was only one way that he could find anything out about this, so he snuck back into Jason Todd’s apartment. It had been a while now, and he had no idea when Jason would be back. Duke focused his eyes on the wall where he knew Jason had been holding up the man he’d abducted. 

He stood, unblinking, as the image of the man left by light particles solidified, showing a face. Duke committed the features to memory as they became more and more distinct, memorizing the slope and shape of the man’s nose and eyes, his general face shape, his hair, until Duke was sure he could remember it perfectly. 

It was only when he heard the light crunch of dry grass being stomped on coming from outside the window that he moved. He slipped out the door, making sure the lock caught again behind him, and ghosted back to his own apartment. 

Then he set to work. 

He searched through database after database, looked through missing persons cases, various police reports, anything he could get his hands on. 

Finally, after hours of searching, he got some potential results. Duke released a breath, leaning back in his desk chair. His back cracked at the movement. He groaned at the reminder of both how long he’d been there and how shitty his desk space was. It really did not pay to be a lowly college student. 

It pretty much did the opposite. 

Gotham University, like most schools in the United States, was so much more expensive than Duke could ever afford on his own. Thank god for Bruce Wayne and his extensive scholarship programs and donations, honestly. 

That man did just as much for Gotham as Batman did. He might be one of the wealthy elite, but the man threw his money to Gotham charities, community programs, and scholarship funds like there was no tomorrow, and saved just about every student, single parent, and struggling family in Gotham. 

Duke knew for a fact that about three quarters of the student body of Gotham U had a shrine to Bruce Wayne around finals week, and he himself usually taped up a motivating picture of Gotham’s Wealthiest Yet Most Giving when he had a particularly hard test or long paper. He hadn’t failed a class yet, so at this point Bruce Wayne was like a good luck charm for both good grades and barely passed classes. 

Duke decided to take a break. If he went any further with the results he was able to find right now, he’d end up missing something, and that kind of setback wasn’t something he could afford. 

He sighed and stood up, taking the time to crack his back properly. It was garbage night anyway; he might as well take it out now. He’d benefit from the short walk, especially after the hours spent sitting in that chair. 

He grabbed the trash can from his bathroom and brought it over to the kitchen garbage, intent on dumping all of it into the one bag. He fumbled it instead, and some of the tissues fell to the floor. 

And then he got an idea. 

It wasn’t anything big, and it felt almost stupid after what had happened last night, but if there was something he could do right now, it was these little dumb things that he’d been doing. And that was better than the nothing he was currently doing. He picked up all the tissues and threw them into the kitchen garbage, making sure that all of them were really in the bin before he pulled the bag out of the can and tied it up. 

Duke put the bag leaning up against his door to come back to. He walked over to the nearest box of tissues and grabbed it, walking back to the kitchen, where he rifled through a drawer of miscellaneous items, coming back up with a small bottle of glue. 

He stuck a dollop of glue on about four tissues and crumpled them up like they were used. Duke waited a minute for them to dry and then shoved the small bunch of them into his pocket. 

He smirked as he left his apartment, carrying his trash bag with him, and as he passed by Jason Todd’s door, he casually dropped his little handful of ‘used’ tissues. 

He hoped Jason left a passive aggressive note on his door. It’d make a nice trophy. He could maybe hang it up on the fridge, a constant reminder that Duke could absolutely be the pettiest man alive if it was well deserved. 

And this went so far beyond well deserved it wasn’t even funny. Jason Todd’s existence made Duke grit his teeth. Statistically speaking, he long since should have been caught either by the cops or by Batman and the rest of the bat-affiliated heroes. And somehow he kept passing by under their radar. The GCPD would laugh Duke right out of the station if he dropped in and told them that Jason Todd was a criminal. In the end, he had no physical proof besides all those guns that the man kept in his apartment, and the GCPD couldn’t get a warrant for it unless there was evidence that Duke could show them right then and there. 

And it’s not like he could contact Batman. 

So here he was, dropping prank tissues in front of the man’s door while he was taking out his trash. 

Feeling helpless really sucked. 

He’d get the guy sometime though, as long as he kept a close eye on the man. Everyone slipped up sometime. And whether Duke could handle it on his own or if he needed to get the police involved, Jason would go down either way. 

Filled with renewed purpose, Duke heaved his trash into the dumpster behind his building, and quickly set back up the stairs. Just as he reached his floor, a kid’s voice rang out through the hallway. 

“Disgusting!” 

Duke peeked around the corner, careful to not be seen. 

“Do your imbecilic neighbors really live like this?”

There was a tiny kid standing in front of the open door of Jason’s apartment. He was poking one of the tissues with. A sword? 

Jesus christ. 

This was so far out of Duke’s pay grade. Not even just because he wasn’t getting paid for any of the work he did, but because that was a middle schooler with a sword. 

Duke slunk back down the stairs. He could start delving research later, when there wasn’t a tiny murderous little kid waving around a goddamn sword. 

Jason Todd apparently teamed up with a baby assassin. Good to know. 

...Duke wasn’t even gonna touch that one with a ten foot pole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might be wondering “how does Duke pull off being a college student while also patrolling at night AND being paranoid and vigilant about every little thing his neighbor does? Have we even seen him do any classwork?”
> 
> In the time honored tradition of college students everywhere, Duke Thomas is A Mess™
> 
> He is also though, A Mess™ who is managing a very high GPA due to the ability to cut through bullshit and get straight to the point in all his assignments to get them done quickly and near perfectly. This streamlined process means that sometimes he can even sleep!


	5. Stephanie

Duke set off on his investigation mid-afternoon, after catching some sleep after an all night binge in hunting down every piece of information he could. He had a face, and after hours of searching databases, a name and home address, too. It turned out that the man was a petty criminal, having prior offenses for working as a henchman for a few of Gotham’s many villains. 

Thank god for Gotham’s _very_ comprehensive database on literally everyone who’d ever been convicted ever. 

Still. Even if the man was a criminal, no one deserved to be at the nonexistent mercy of Jason Todd, and despite the general incompetency of the Gotham Police Department (which was maybe unfair to them, Duke thought. The ones who weren’t corrupt really did the best they could, given all of Gotham’s crazy), Duke firmly believed in the justice system. Granted, there were only maybe about nine precincts in the entire city that Duke fully trusted to do their job. Considering there were sixty two precincts in total, the numbers weren’t that great, but Commissioner Gordon was doing a damn good job in striking corruption from the police force. It was just hard to keep up with in a city like Gotham with a revolving door for threats, shady opportunities, and countless other issues, where a new corrupt cop would just replace the one who’d just been fired. 

Duke made his way over to the East End, where the guy’s permanent address was. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t find much, but something was better than nothing, and an investigation into where this guy came from and how he could have ended up in Jason Todd’s path would only help. Especially if there were others in the area who could be targeted by Todd. 

The East End was just as shitty as he’d expected it to be, though it was still better than the Narrows, where Duke had grown up. Walking down the streets, it looked fairly innocuous if you didn’t know what you were seeing, but Duke turned his face down as he passed by a bus stop surrounded by people. He knew that most of them were there using the cover of people to buy drugs. The streets were littered with trash and needles. But it was still Gotham. She had the good and the bad, and Duke wouldn’t have it any less. Even as rough as the East End and the Narrows were, they were still part of the city that raised him, and he wouldn’t have it either way. Neither neighborhood, however, was a place he wanted to be out at after dark with no backup and no one knowing where he’d gone. 

Which meant, of course, that’s exactly the situation he ended up finding himself in. 

After leaving his side of the city for the East End, Duke had skulked around the guy’s listed permanent address in the bare hope that the man, James Bowden, would show up in the off chance he’d somehow escaped from Jason Todd. Knowing that was pretty unlikely, he was also hoping for a chance to talk to Bowden’s wife. If he played his cards right, she’d hopefully point him to areas that Bowden had been spending time around, any jobs that he’d taken recently. 

Given Bowden’s history as a Gotham hench, there was a chance he’d been working for Jason Todd. Duke made a mental note to keep a closer eye on Todd. There weren’t too many younger criminals who could fit themselves into the upper tiers of Gotham’s villain scene, and while he knew the man was dangerous, this would put him into a whole new level of danger. 

Keeping those thoughts tucked in the back of his mind, Duke knocked on the door to Bowden’s apartment. 

The door opened. He let every inch of the tired he was feeling show physically as he slumped his shoulders and blinked heavily. Bowden had something of a reputation for helping struggling folks find jobs, folding them in the odd hench job here and there. It would make it easy for Duke to get information about Bowden’s usual jobs, thankfully. 

Bowden’s wife stood at the door. “Can I help you?”

“I heard that James was the guy to go to if we were in a rough spot. This is his place, right?” Duke shuffled his feet a little and curled into himself, playing up the young and tired aspects. He felt a little bad about lying to Bowden’s wife, but it was a safe way to get information from her that wouldn’t put her in any danger if someone found out about Duke’s investigation. 

Her eyes softened and her posture, previously guarded, relaxed a little. “Jimmy’s working right now, but if you head over to the docks, that’s where he's been working nowadays. You’ll probably be able to catch him over there.”

Duke thanked her and immediately set off. For the docks. One of Gotham’s prime receiving areas for all manner of villain evil plot materials. 

It wasn’t so much a miscalculated decision as it was a bad one. 

Because Duke? Had never intended to get caught in all the crazy that existed in Gotham. The opportunistic mugger, the small time robbers, nighttime stalkers? Yeah, he could handle those. Lately he’d been almost making a career out of it. Well, he would be, if it was the kind of job that paid. 

But Scarecrow? Not a fucking chance. 

Duke’s incredibly unfortunate luck is probably about 89% of the reason he ended up pinned down in a dirty warehouse full of trash and piles of wooden crates as the sun dropped below the horizon line, hiding from Scarecrow’s goons as they unloaded some shipment for their boss’ new plan for Gotham. The other 11% was just the world out to get him. Seriously, living next to a skilled and ruthless criminal was one thing, but walking into a villain’s setup for an evil scheme was just ridiculous. 

One of the goons fumbled one of the crates they were carrying to a truck they’d driven up in earlier and parked at the door of the warehouse. Duke heard the crunch of glass as the crate hit the ground. A green liquid started seeping out the bottom of the crate. The woman who’d dropped it cursed.  
  
One of the men with her finished loading his own crate into the truck and then stepped back to look. He whistled. “The boss ain’t gonna be happy.”

“Shut _up,_ ” she hissed at him. 

“Should we clear out?” One of the others asked, looking dubiously at the green liquid puddling on the ground as it started steaming. 

“We gotta finish the job. No delivery, no money.” 

“Fuck the money, man, this situation’s just upgraded and we’re not being paid hazard. It was supposed to be a simple pick up job!” The woman who’d dropped the crate protested. “The way the Scarecrow was going on about this stuff, I do _not_ want to stick around to see what it does to us. My sister’s ex got caught up in one of his attacks a few years back and he’s _still_ recovering!” 

“Here’s this; we load the rest of it quick and get on the road. If it starts to affect any of us or spread worse than it is, we split.” 

There were short nods all around and murmurs as they all got to work, moving just a little faster than they had been. 

It brought them unfortunately close to where Duke was crouched behind a stack of the crates. He looked around. 

Duke looked around desperately for any spot that could hide him from Scarecrow’s lackeys that wasn’t behind the crates of potentially lethal green toxins. The same lethal green toxins that were likely to send him spiralling into a nightmare based insanity. There were distressingly few spots. 

He flinched as another one of the crates was jostled roughly, glass clinking inside. He held his breath, waiting to see if anything would happen, but sighed in relief as none of the green fear gas – fear liquid? Slipped between the crates’ wooden slats. 

This was a dangerous situation. 

Eight hired goons, and crates containing extremely fragile glass containers holding some new invention of Scarecrow’s that was designed to either drive people insane or just straight up kill them. 

The sane, logical thing to do would be to get the hell out of dodge and call the police immediately. 

“Okay,” Duke whispered to himself. “Two options. First is go find a phone and let the police handle it, even though you don’t know which precinct is nearby. Probably corrupt police to the rescue. They can do their jobs, right? No one’s going to ignore a call about the potential murder of a good chunk of Gotham’s population.” 

Duke nodded. Then the last several months of police incompetency during various villain attacks flashed through his mind. He put his head in his hands. “Oh my god,” he groaned. “Okay, second option. Stay. Fight them off somehow, and then get the truck away and into an isolated area. I can do that,” he muttered. “Probably.” 

He lifted from his crouched position to peer over the top of the crates he was hiding behind.

“Oh fuck I hope I can do that.”

He waited until they were all heading towards the truck, each one with a crate in hand, and then slipped out from his cover. He stuck to the shadows, holding his breath as he crept his way closer to the truck. He had to be careful to not step on any of the plastic bags or worn shoes or any manner of trash that was lying about. 

Although maybe...

Duke snatched up a stray empty beer bottle that was lying near the side of the truck. He gripped it tightly in his hand and waited until everyone was turned away from him. Making sure that no one even glanced in his direction, he lobbed it in a high arc, aiming for just behind the crates he’d been hiding behind before he moved closer to the front of the warehouse. 

It crashed down and the sound of shattering glass drew the attention of everyone there, and Duke took the opportunity to sneak into the cab of the truck while Scarecrow’s goons panicked, trying to find which crates had just broken. Duke stayed low, making sure that he wouldn’t be seen until someone was going to actually enter the cab of the truck. 

He sat there, silent. Duke could hear the shuffle of the henchmen and henchwomen as they continued loading the crates, and the quiet, low hiss of the still steaming fear gas from the broken crate. The shuffling finally slowed, and then pretty much stopped. Duke tensed, getting ready. 

A bead of sweat trickled down his back. It felt gross, but if there was any situation that Duke was justified in stress sweating, Duke thought it was this one. All he had to do was wait a handful of seconds – maybe minutes, depending on how slow the goons were moving – and then he’d be doing what had to be the _dumbest_ thing he’d ever done. 

And here he’d thought the dumbest thing he could do was accidentally move in next to a man with what had to be a hefty criminal record and an incredible number of guns. That just goes to show what Past Duke knew. 

Duke heard the quiet sound of footsteps approaching the front of the truck. He waited. 

One second. Two. 

The door of the truck creaked open. Duke launched himself out of it, using his crouched position to put more power behind the jump. He sprang forward, roughly taking down the person who’d opened the door. They hit the ground hard, the air pushing itself harshly out of Duke’s lungs at the force of the impact. Duke used the momentum of his jump to roll off the person he’d tackled and he swiftly got to his feet. 

Duke looked at the other goons, figuring out where everyone was. They stared at him in varying states of dumb surprise, mouths agape and eyebrows raised. He quickly threw himself at another one of them, swinging his fist out and into the man’s ribs, using their shock against them. This was the only chance he’d have to take them down as quickly and cleanly as possible and if he fucked up here, there was a chance he’d be test patient number one for whatever Scarecrow had cooked up. 

Duke’s bad luck reared its head again, because that was all the surprise he was able to take advantage of. Duke winced as knuckles drove into his lower back. He twisted his body and threw an elbow back, aiming high. He caught something solid. The crunching sound he heard told him it was probably someone’s nose, and he let himself feel a brief moment of satisfaction before throwing himself back into the fight. 

Duke swept a foot out, tripping the man in front of him and whirled around to take care of the woman behind him, the one who’d gotten him in what felt like was his kidney. 

He lost track of the fight after that. He twisted around and dodged what felt like a thousand punches and kicks. He failed to twist around and didge what felt like a thousand more.

It was all he could do to keep people off of him, and he knew he wasn’t dealing as much damage as he was getting. Eight on one generally wasn’t great odds, and Duke wouldn’t have even bet on himself. 

Out of some stroke of luck, desperation, and many months of practice taking out muggers, Duke managed to drop three of them in a way that incapacitated them. Judging by their groaning, they weren’t going to get up any time soon. 

That left five of them. They were getting more aggressive than they had been. Duke’s lips twisted and he lunged for another one even as he could feel his muscles tiring and his body starting to lag. 

A punch to his temple left him bleeding from his eyebrow and into his eyes. Duke blinked the blood out of his eyes as best as he could and squared up, the cut in his eyebrow stinging, though not as badly as the blood in his eye. He bared his teeth at his remaining opponents and gathered himself up, ready to rush them.

And then one of them just collapsed like a doll cut from its strings. With that as the only warning, a figure wrapped in black and purple with a familiar yellow bat insignia emblazoned across her chest leapt down from the top of the truck and neatly laid another man out, flipping him over her shoulder with ease. 

_Holy shit,_ Duke thought. That was _Batgirl._

He didn’t even need to do anything else. She wrapped everything up quickly, swiftly immobilizing everyone with efficient kicks and punches, the occasional throw or flip for fun. 

Duke watched as she flipped over one man’s head, hands planted firmly on his shoulders as she used the leverage to then throw the man to the ground. 

When she had the rest of the goons out cold, she stood up straight and turned to face Duke. Her cape billowed out behind her and the yellow bat on her chest was a bright symbol in the dark. She had her hands on her hips in the classic hero pose, and despite having just laid five people out cold, she looked like she hadn’t even broken a sweat. 

“You,” Duke said fervently. “Are the coolest person I have ever met.”

Batgirl(!) laughed. “Oh man, can I keep you? I’ll pay you hype man wages.” She pulled zip ties out of her utility belt and tossed him a few. “Help me out? I’ve got to get them wrapped up all pretty and with a cherry on top for the cops.” 

He hummed an agreement and got to work, zip tying the hands and feet of Scarecrow’s henchpeople together. 

Batgirl moved onto one of the men Duke had knocked out. She nodded at the man lying prone and looked over at Duke. “Nice work,” she said. 

“Oh. Uh- thanks?” Duke had honestly never expected this, and he was admittedly a little star struck. 

Batgirl gathered all the henchpeople up, stacking them in a pile. She beamed at Duke. “No problem!” She reached into the pockets of one of the men before drawing back with the keys to the truck and a triumphant smile.

She turned back to Duke. “Hey, mysterious stranger, I gotta question. Why’d you wait til they were done packing all the crates into the truck?”

“Wait- you saw that? How long were you watching?”

“I got here when you threw the bottle. Smart move on that one, by the way, that was a good distraction! It was supposed to be a low key mission. You know, rush in and take them out.” Batgirl shrugged. “You seemed to have a decent handle on it at first though, so I figured I’d watch from on high. Seriously, though. Why? It would’ve been easier to take them out while they were all still busy.”

“If we were fighting around the crates, there’s a good bet that more crates would end up broken and more of that green stuff would end up spilling all over the place.” Duke explained. “They’ll heal from a beatdown, but I don’t know if they’d heal from whatever the hell that shit is. Seemed like it’d fuck a person up.” 

“Hey, you’re a pretty decent guy.” Batgirl grinned at Duke. “I’ll take it from here; you look like you could use a break and several weeks of good rest.”

“Wait!” Duke said frantically, remembering the whole reason he came to the docks in the first place. He’d thought earlier that there was no way to contact Batman about this, but Batgirl was really the next best thing. It was good that it happened like this; Duke’s head was swimming, exhausted and left empty after all the adrenaline left. He could barely think straight. It’d be almost impossible to find and rescue Bowden for him at this point, but Batgirl could do it. Not to mention that she could do it a hell of a lot faster than Duke could. “There’s this guy, James Bowden. He was supposed to work for Scarecrow tonight, I think? He got abducted a couple days ago, I saw him around the West side of Gotham University.” Duke looked at Batgirl, exhaustion pulling at him. “Please, Batgirl. You’ve gotta find him.”

Batgirl walked over to Duke and put a concerned hand on his shoulder. “I’ll handle it,” she said. The corner of her mouth pulled up a little. “You go home, go sleep. You did a lot of good work here tonight. You should rest.”

Knowing that Batgirl would help Bowden, Duke groaned in agreement. Every movement he made, his body ended up screaming at him, especially now that the burst of energy granted to him by the adrenaline was entirely gone from his system. He was going to pay for this later. 

He shifted his weight and immediately winced. 

Scratch the later, he was already paying for it now. 

Duke said goodbye to Batgirl and limped his way back home, hissing through his teeth with each step. It wasn’t too late, so hopefully he’d be able to pass out for the next twelve hours. He just had to get into his apartment without anything else happening. Given his whole mess of a day, Duke figured that there wasn’t anything else the world could really throw at him.

And then, in his apartment building hallway, five steps from the blissful oblivion of beautiful, wonderful sleep on his ridiculously soft couch, Duke did exactly what he wanted to do the least. He ran into Jason Todd. 

Jason looked him up and down, and Duke winced at the idea of what he looked like. Still raw cuts littering his face and arms, bruised skin swelled up, and thick bags under his eyes, Duke knew he looked like a mess. 

“What the fuck happened to you?” 

Duke knew he looked awful. He did. It was hard to imagine he looked any better than he felt, and he felt like he’d been hit by a truck, a car, and then another truck. But even then, Jason didn’t have to be so rude. Duke knew he looked bad; it didn’t mean he wanted anyone to point it out. 

So he stared straight at Jason Todd, expression flat. “That’s rude. I was born like this.” Seeing Todd’s unamused expression, Duke continued. “Nah, man. School sanctioned brawl. Last man standing got to shake the mayor’s hand.” He paused. “Just kidding. Friday night poker got out of hand.”

And then Duke turned around and walked into his apartment, making sure to slam the door. He collapsed face first onto his couch, only realizing that it was a terrible idea to do that when his face bounced against the cushions. 

He groaned in pain, and shifted until he was no longer _lying on his face_. His eyes slipped closed and everything in the world just seemed to dim a little. Duke’s last coherent thought was that he was ready to sleep for the next thousand years. The exhaustion overtook him, and despite the throbbing in his face and arms and back and ribs, he slipped peacefully into sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's a day late guys! This chapter ended up being three times as long as they usually are lmao
> 
> Also, the schedule might slow down for a bit; I'm graduating from undergrad in two weeks, so I'm pretty busy getting everything finished up. But by the end of all this, I'm gonna come out of this victorious and with my diploma in hand hell yeah!


	6. Cass

Things were a little quieter in Gotham for a little while after Duke's run in with Scarecrow's henchmen. Unfortunately it was quiet in the way that it usually was when one of the big crazies had an elaborate plan in the making. Rumor had it that Batman was taking to the streets with a vengeance, more active than he usually was, which meant that he knew it too. Some reports put him at one end of Gotham just a handful of minutes after he’d taken down a ring of criminals in a neighborhood at the opposite end. 

The man had the criminals running like they were being chased by a bat out of hell. 

And yeah, okay that was a completely unoriginal and incredibly overdone joke, but it was his duty as a Gotham citizen to make fun of a guy who dressed up like a bat. Pretty much everyone in Gotham did. At least, as long as Batman was out of sight, because if he wasn’t- well, the man was terrifying, and the dramatic and silly costume and moniker did not seem so silly or dramatic in person. 

As many criminals would attest to, the sight of Batman melting out of the shadows to deliver justice with great prejudice filled the darkest, most fear filled corner of their brains. Batman was even terrifying by civilian accounts, and they never even got the beating of justice that criminals did.

Duke wondered briefly where he fell on the criminal/civilian scale in Batman’s eyes. Duke definitely wouldn’t count himself as a normal civilian anymore and what he was doing was illegal because it _technically_ counted as vigilantism since he actively searched for crimes to stop, but Batman had no leg to stand on in that regard since he was doing _exactly_ the same thing that Duke was. 

He personally hadn’t caught sight of Gotham’s elusive superhero yet, but the stories and legends about him were really more than enough for him to decide that yeah, actually, he’d be fine if he never saw Batman. Which, knowing his luck and the fact that he spent hours out patrolling the streets of Gotham at night, meant he’d probably be running into the man at some point soon. Duke sighed. Probably tonight if he was being honest with himself. 

But whatever, even the prospect of running into Batman wasn’t going to stop him from patrolling, and if he was able to get information about what villain scheme would be going down soon, even better. 

_And_ it would give him an excuse to stop studying, test for his criminal law class be damned. He’d been attending class reliably anyway, he’d be fine without last minute studying. 

Justifiable reason to stop looking at his textbook in hand, Duke grabbed his study materials, including the ridiculously heavy book that they had used like, twice total, and carried them to the kitchen counter. And then gleefully slapped them down, hard _._ The walls were thin enough that the sound _had_ to travel through. There was no way it didn’t, especially this close to their shared wall.

He grinned when he heard a low, irritated groan from next door. 

Never let it be said that Duke wouldn’t be petty against those who deserved. He would, and gladly; it tasted a lot like sweet vindication. Especially against kidnapping, gun toting criminals like _Jason Todd_.

Setting aside his study materials for now, Duke tugged his hoodie over his head and slipped out his window, using the rough worn away bricks and thick vines for handholds on his way down.

The night was cool and he basked in the fresh air for a minute before following his usual patrol route. Even petty crime was down, everyone lying low in anticipation for whatever big villainous plot was going to go off, but he still managed to stop an assault and a corner store robbery, so the night wasn’t a total waste. 

Duke’s sneakers scuffed the dirty cement as he wandered through Gotham’s streets, keeping his head down but his guard up. 

He didn’t come across anything else for a while as he wandered farther out but about three hours into his patrol there’s finally something significant. His head jerked up as he heard a scuffle between what sounded like a lot of people. He sprinted towards it before he could even really think. There were any number of things that could be happening, he knew, all of them bad.

And then he rounded the corner. Duke promptly dodged a flailing arm aimed sloppily for his face, and neatly tripped the man who’d tried to plant an elbow in his eye. Duke looked down at him and wow, the guy looked terrified. 

Duke looked back up, toward the commotion and it was no wonder the guy had been acting with such desperation, because that was _Batman_ . He was ripping through the many henchmen and women – and goddammit, they were definitely Scarecrow’s hires if the half loaded truck of suspicious canisters were any indication, which meant that there was definitely something deeper going on. He didn’t know if it was better or worse to have that confirmation, because while it gave Duke a better idea of what might happen soon, it also implied that Scarecrow’s plot had started being put into motion _weeks_ ago. 

If Scarecrow was weeks deep into the plan, it was going to be a big one. Duke cursed. The big, elaborate villain plots always ended up with a number of casualties. Most of them civilian. 

Things were going to get really, _really_ ugly unless someone stopped Scarecrow before he could go any further. 

Which, Duke thought as he watched the shadowy figure drop hench after hench, Batman actually seemed to have pretty well in hand. God but Batman was terrifying. Normally Duke would have jumped in to help resolve the situation quickly, but his help is beyond unnecessary here. He stood by and watched instead, in awe of the swift and clean takedowns. It was as he was watching that he realized that Batman didn’t have the bulk or the height that Duke had expected. He was pretty small, actually. And Duke thought about how it was probably the media that named Batman and then his mom’s voice popped into his head. 

It was an old lecture from when he was a kid about how a lot of men didn’t think that women were physically capable of anything and how wrong those men were but how that idea ended up affecting the way people saw things anyway.

So Batman might not be a man; the media always made a lot of assumptions and it wasn’t like anyone had been able to interview him. Her. Them? 

Well, whoever Batman was, this was definitely them. They fit Batman’s description exactly; an intimidating figure wreathed in shadow and darkness, taking people down ruthlessly and efficiently as they mete out justice with their fists (and feet, too, apparently. Duke winced as another roundhouse kick thudded into someone’s head). 

The fight didn’t last much longer. After the last hench fell to the ground, Batman pulled out zip ties from their utility belt and began securing all the henches, immobilizing them until the police could arrive. 

Once they were all subdued, Batman glanced in Duke’s direction. He felt a shiver go down his spine as he stared directly at Batman, who, despite the bright yellow accents, still looked like they were a mass of horrifying shadow. Batman’s tattered cape fluttered ominously around them. They nodded at him, brief and shallow, and then they were gone. 

Duke blinked. He hadn’t even seen them _leave_. 

From all the stories he’d heard, that was normal, but that didn’t make it any less disconcerting. He sighed and brought a hand up to rub tiredly at his temples. His luck, seriously... He did not have the energy to do this tonight. 

Besides, Batman had Gotham under control, for tonight at least. Duke could rest easy knowing that Batman would be patrolling the area. He slipped away into the shadows as the first cop cars turned onto the street, sirens blaring as the red and blue emergency splashed across the buildings. 

The sound of the sirens followed him home, the echoes bouncing down the streets, growing more and more faint the closer he got to his apartment. 

He was just coming up to the side of the building his window is at when he saw a shadowy figure on the rooftop. It swung itself down and through the window of the apartment next to his and Duke stilled in anticipation because that shadow was Batman, and it seemed like they'd finally caught on to Jason Todd’s criminal tendencies. Duke was so ready to hear the sweet sounds of a quick fight and an even quicker arrest. Maybe Batman could even find the man that Jason Todd had kidnapped, even if it was only his body. Maybe Batman had _already_ found Bowden and that’s why they were here.

The apartment was silent, but Duke waited for just a little longer. He strained his ears to see if maybe he just wasn’t listening hard enough. 

It couldn’t be that Jason Todd wasn’t home, because he’d seen the shuffle of movement through the window before Batman had slipped in. (There was no wondering why the man was up in the small hours of the morning; crime in Gotham was always most active when the city was near pitch black from smog and the sun’s absence.)

After a long, silent minute, Batman slipped back out the window and swiftly scaled the side of the building back up to the rooftop. Jason Todd wasn’t draped over their shoulder, unconscious and ready to be delivered into the police’s hands. 

And then Jason _fucking_ Todd leaned out his window and gave Batman a short wave. Batman, who Duke had seen demolishing criminals like it was their one goal in life not even thirty minutes ago, waved back. 

Duke stood there, dumbstruck. He was still standing there even minutes after Jason Todd had retreated back into his apartment and Duke’s thoughts felt a million miles away because he did not know how to process the fact that Batman was apparently on friendly terms with the neighbor he’d thought was a criminal. 

With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Duke admitted to himself that he might have been very wrong about Jason Todd and the rest of his group. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my self indulgent fic so I can further my agenda of Cass being the next Batman if I want to 😂  
> But Duke is finally getting it! Now that "Batman" is in the equation, he's got the hints to put together that the infinitesimally small chance of two vigilantes being next door neighbors by chance has actually happened.
> 
> Sorry I was gone for so long! I graduated undergrad in May and have been putting all my energy into finding work, so I just didn't have a lot left over to write this chapter, and definitely not at the rate I'd been doing it before lol. I think that there's about two chapters left, and they'll likely be a little slower as well, but slow and steady wins the race, right? 
> 
> Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Duke loving household hell yeah!  
> This is an entirely self indulgent fic lol


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